Drug and Dietary Supplement Profiles

A comprehensive review of the safety
and effectiveness of this drug. If the drug is not a Do Not Use product, information
on adverse effects, drug interactions and how to use the medication are included.

Search results below include drug profiles where your selected drug is a primary subject of discussion

Disease and Drug Family Information

Search results below include Disease and Drug Family Information where your selected drug is a primary subject of discussion

Sleeping Pills and Tranquilizers
[hide all summaries]
Older adults have a much more difficult time eliminating benzodiazepines and similar drugs from their bloodstreams and these drugs can thus accumulate in their bodies. Also, older adults are more sensitive to the effects of many of these drugs than are younger adults. For older adults the risk of serious adverse drug effects is significantly increased. Serious adverse effects may include: unsteady gait, dizziness, falling (causing an increased risk of hip fractures), increased risk of an auto accident, drug-induced or drug-worsened impairment of thinking, memory loss, and addiction.

Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles

Search
results below include Worst Pills, Best Pills Newsletter Articles where your
selected drug is a primary subject of discussion

Sleeping Pill Poses Safety Risks
[hide all summaries]
(April 2013)
Learn about new warnings concerning multiple formulations of a widely used sleeping pill. The levels of the drug remaining in the blood the morning after use may be high enough to impair activities requiring mental alertness, including driving.

The Dangers of Combining Sleeping Pills With Other Medication
[hide all summaries]
(September 2010)
The article list 34 other medications that can harmfully interact with sleeping pills, increasing their sedative properties and causing excessive sedation. Excessive sedation at night could increase the risk of falls, should the person get up in the night for some reason. Moreover, excessive sedation causing respiratory depression could be dangerous for people with certain disorders, such as lung disease.

FDA Requests New Safety Warnings for AMBIEN (Zolpidem), Other Sleeping Pills
[hide all summaries]
(May 2007)
Patients taking sleep medications could be at risk of severe allergic reactions and complex sleep-related behaviors, which may include sleep driving, driving while not fully awake after ingestion of a sleeping pill, with no memory of the event, according to the FDA. DO NOT suddenly stop taking sleeping pills without consulting your physician because of the possibility of withdrawal reactions.

Drug Induced Psychiatric Symptoms (Part 2)
[hide all summaries]
(November 2002)
This is the second of a two-part series on drug-induced psychiatric symptoms that began in last month’s Worst Pills, Best Pills News. The information is based on the July 8, 2002 issue of The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics. Article lists drugs and adverse effects.